Lest We Forget

The gay rights movement really is necessary. I suspect that with most of the people who read my journal this is preaching to the choir, but I hope that someone will read this and understand that though the news focuses on just things like marriage there is still a lot of basic human rights work to be done. I write this because I read in Lawrence Schimel's journal that a friend of his, Paul Willis, was attacked and severely beaten on Saturday. He is in hospital and the doctors say that he'll never be able to see from his right eye again. And this isn't news, this isn't something that will be widely condemned, things like this probably happen every single day in America. Matthew Shepard was not the last guy killed in America for being gay, he's just one of the most dramatic stories.

If you are a conservative I want you to understand that the news isn't an accurate portrayal of what gays are after. Though we want things like marriage rights we are more basically looking to change the nation so that five youths won't jump out of a van and beat another human being for looking too gay. That I am not being hysterical when I point out that gays are still being persecuted in this way and I want you to look hard at candidates who say things like they don't want "special rights" for gays. Because they might not be saying what their words literally mean, it could be a code word phrase meaning "I will wink at crimes against homosexuals".